4. Requisites for Happiness

1. The perfect happiness which man will have by the operation of the speculative intellect as it beholds God in the beatific vision, will be accompanied by rest and enjoyment of the will; in this consists the joy and delight of heaven.

2. In the act of happiness, the operation of the intellect ranks above the delight of the will, for the will's fruition or enjoyment depends upon the intellect's beholding of God in vision.

3. During earthly life man is a wayfarer, a traveler onthe road, one whose journey is not yet completed; he is aviator. In heaven, the journey is over, and man beholds God; he is a comprehensor. This name does not indicate that man actually comprehends God in the full sense of the word comprehend; for, as we saw early in our studies, to comprehend means to know all that is knowable about an object known, and such knowledge can be found only in the infinite mind of God. Man in heaven is a comprehensor in the sense that he has now a direct and intuitive knowledge of the divine essence itself. The happiness of man in heaven involves three things: vision or direct and intuitive knowledge of God, man's last end; comprehension or the present possession of God, the last end; and fruition or delight of the will in the last end possessed.

4. Happiness cannot be perfectly attained without rightness or rectitude in the will, for this sets the will in proper alignment with the supreme good, and makes the will love what it loves in perfect subordination to God. In such subordination consists the perfection of the human will, and without this perfection man cannot be perfectly happy.

5. Man's ultimate happiness is essentially an operation of the intellect which is a faculty of the soul. Therefore the body is not essential to man's ultimate happiness. But there is a connatural tendency in each soul to in-form its own body, and if this tendency is defeated, there is a certain imperfection in the soul.

6. In the present life, a well-disposed body is required for earthly happiness. And, while the body, as we have seen, is not essential to the soul's happiness in heaven, it will be supplied to the soul at the general resurrection. Then the body itself will attain full perfection, and will contribute as an accidental factor to the happiness of the complete man in glory.

7. External goods, such as food, drink, and property, which are required in due measure for earthly happiness, will not be required at all in heaven. When souls and bodies are reunited at the general resurrection, human bodies will be spiritualized and will no longer have material or animal needs.

8. In heaven, the fellowship of friends is not essential to man's happiness, for God is all-sufficing. Yet doubtless friends will be loved and their fellowship will be enjoyed in God.

"Whoever wants to stand alone without the support of a master and guide will be like the tree that stands alone in a field without a proprietor. No matter how much the tree bears, passers-by will pick the fruit before it ripens.
" St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church

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"For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God?" Thomas á Kempis

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"Obedience is the true holocaust which we sacrifice to God on the altar of our hearts." St Philip Neri